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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

The Humble King: From Heaven to the Cross

You know, when you have Jesus, you have a blessed assurance.

We know what Jesus did on the cross but why did he do that on the cross?

And today as we meditate on this theme I'd like to begin by starting with the why of redemption.

Far too many Christians might explain what They know about redemption, but fewer can answer the question why.

And today we're going to discover that it involves a humble king.

The message that I'm going to share with you is entitled, The Humble King from Heaven to the Cross.

Let's pause as we acknowledge the King of Kings.

Father in Heaven, we are here today to humbly come before you knowing that at the foot of the cross we see a sight that expresses matchless love.

And today, Lord, may you draw near to us and reveal to us the very heart of why you did what you did.

Pray that you would come close to our hearts, Lord, that we would understand you.

Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity, this beautiful opportunity we have to renew and reconsecrate our lives to you.

And even more, Somebody here today may be willing to choose to open the door of their hearts and allow you to come in.

So we thank you Lord in Jesus name, Amen.

When the old serpent, the 1 whom John, the author of Revelation, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote about, whom he called the devil and Satan, the old serpent, spoke his words of temptation to Eve.

Those words that he spoke to Eve carried with them a certain, Shall we say poison, certain poison.

And when she listened, listened to this voice that she had never heard before and willingly gave it in.

She gave in to the temptation to entertain the desire, the thought that she would be like God.

Because you do recall that God laid it out.

And he said this is what's right and this is what's wrong.

If you listen to my voice, you will do what's right.

But if you disobey, you will do what's wrong.

But then the devil comes along and says, whispers to Eve saying, psst, psst, psst.

You determine for yourself what is right and what is wrong.

And as she gave in to this desire, something happened.

Destroying the humility and dependence of God that would have been the very source of our eternal happiness.

Trusting in God would have been the very source of eternal joy.

But instead, her life and the life of the entire human race for that matter, became corrupted to its very root with the poison of Satan's own pride.

And all the scenes of misery, hopelessness, that this world has witnessed.

All the stories you hear about, that you watch on the news.

All this misery that we see far too much.

All the wars and the bloodshed among nations and tribes, the selfishness, All the envy, all the bitterness, all the lies, all the jealousies, all acts of sin, for that matter, have their origin in a single act of pride.

But let's bring it a little closer to home, to our very own life.

All the rebellion, irritation and anger, all the sharp criticism, all the indifference to the needs and the feelings and the weaknesses of others, all the feelings of bitter jealousies and bitterness, all have their root in nothing but pride.

It was Satan's poison that he inflicted into the creation of God, his masterpiece, Jesus' own masterpiece, was now corrupted by the enemy.

And it is pride that made redemption necessary.

Above everything else, it is pride that we need to be saved from.

Because it's the root of every evil of every sin.

And God, God as the gentle Savior, the Lord of lords, he is ready to step into our life and call the shots.

He's ready to step into our life and fulfill his precious thoughts towards you.

But he can only do that when we're willing to step down from the throne and say, Jesus, take over.

And if you were to take every sin, every act of sin, from A all the way to Z.

Make a long list of sins, different from each other.

You would notice, begin to notice something.

Yeah, they all have a common denominator.

As distinct as they are, there's a common root, A common root, and that common root is my will rather than God's will.

Before you engage in an act of sin, you've already committed sin, capital S-I-N, sin, which is a choice.

I'm going to do what I want to do rather than what God wants me to do.

And when we make that choice, we act it out.

Thus we have acts of sin, which again have that common root, which is our will rather than God's will.

And it's working daily, no hourly, in our lives with strong force in every part of our lives, continuously.

We suffer from it, we fear, we fight, we flee from it, yet we don't exactly know where it comes from because it takes various shapes and sizes.

Pride has its root and strength in a terrible spiritual power that is both outside of us and within.

See, if pride was only a problem out there, things would probably, not much, but probably be a little easier.

And as much as we need to confess pride and yes, renounce pride, we need to know the power of darkness behind it.

We need to know what fuels pride, where it comes from.

And the more we do, the more we'll realize our desperate need and realize that We need to accept a power outside of ourselves.

As much as we try, try, try, try and try harder.

It's a power that we need outside of ourselves.

The humility of heaven that came down to cast out Satan and his pride.

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The Humble King: From Heaven to the Cross

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